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12 Page Template Miscarriages of JusticeUK (MOJUK) 22 Berners St, Birmingham B19 2DR police, only to have to scrap those conclusions and start again. This was known to have con - Tele: 0121- 507 0844 Email: [email protected] Web: www.mojuk.org.uk cerned May. The Metropolitan police said in a statement on Tuesday: “The matter was reinvesti - gated with a final report in April 2015 recommending six officers face gross misconduct hearings MOJUK: Newsletter ‘Inside Out’ No 636 (18/05/2017) - Cost £1 and five face misconduct hearings. One officer had left the MPS prior to the second IPCC inves - tigation; two others have also since left the MPS. “Following liaison with the Met’s Directorate of Mother of Olaseni Lewis Who Died After Police Restraint Calls For Prosecution Professional Standards, the IPCC subsequently directed the MPS to hold gross misconduct and Damien Gayle and Vikram Dodd, Guardian: The mother of a young man who was killed by misconduct hearings in connection with those officers still serving. The CPS also considered the prolonged restraint on a mental health ward has called for the police officers involved to be matter in 2015 and decided no criminal charges should be brought against any officer.” prosecuted, after an inquest concluded that excessive force contributed to his death. Olaseni Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST said: “This jury have reached the most damning conclusions Lewis, 23, from South Norwood, south London, died on 3 September 2010, three days after on the collective failures of police and mental health services. This was a most horrific death. Eleven he was subjected to two periods of restraint by police lasting more than 30 minutes, while in police officers were involved in holding down a terrified young man until his complete collapse, legs the care of Bethlem Royal hospital. He had no history of violence or mental illness and had and hands bound in limb restraints, while mental health staff stood by. Officers knew the dangers of been taken to the hospital by his mother and father after an episode of mental ill health that this restraint but chose to go against clear, unequivocal training. Evidence heard at this inquest begs began over the August bank holiday weekend. the question of how racial stereotyping informed Seni’s brutal treatment. INQUEST’s casework and In a narrative conclusion given after the coroner ruled out a finding of unlawful killing, the monitoring reveals that a disproportionate number of people with mental health issues and/or from jury identified a litany of failures by both police and medical staff that contributed to Lewis’s BAME communities die following the use of force. That these deaths continue illustrates systemic death. “The excessive force, pain compliance techniques and multiple mechanical restraints problems in the processes for holding police to account at an individual and corporate level. Despite were disproportionate and unreasonable. On the balance of probability, this contributed to the a plethora of recommendations arising from investigations, inquests and reviews there has been a cause of death,” they said. Police failed to act in accordance with their training and recognise failure of leadership to implement change in culture, approach and training. We call in the strongest Lewis’s acute behavioural disorder as a medical emergency, the jury said. A doctor then failed possible terms for the Metropolitan Police Service, the Home Office and Department of Health to to respond when Lewis became unresponsive and his heart rate slowed dramatically during publicly respond to the shocking evidence that has come out of this inquest”. the second period of restraint. The police failed to follow their training, which requires them to Seni’s parents, Aji and Conrad Lewis, said in response to today’s conclusion: “When Seni became place an unresponsive person into the recovery position and if necessary administer life sup - ill, we turned to the state in our desperation: we took him to hospital which we thought was the best port,” the jury concluded. “On the balance of probability this also contributed to the cause of place for him. We shall always bear the cross of knowing that, instead of the help and care he need - death.” The medical cause of death was given as a combination of hypoxic brain injury (which ed, Seni met with his death. Now, after almost seven years of struggle to get here, the last three occurs when the brain is starved of oxygen), cardiorespiratory arrest and restraint in associa - months have allowed us to hear for ourselves about what happened to Seni. We have heard about tion with acute behavioural disturbance. the failures at multiple levels amongst the management and staff at Bethlem Royal Hospital: instead After the conclusion was handed down, Ajibola Lewis, Olaseni’s mother, said the family had of looking after him, they called the police to deal with him. And we have heard about the brute force suffered “seven years of struggle” to find out the circumstances of her son’s death. She with which the police held Seni in a prolonged restraint which they knew to be dangerous: a restraint expressed her regret at turning “to the state” in a desperate attempt to help her son. She said that was maintained until Seni was dead for all intents and purposes. the family had heard of failures at multiple levels among staff at Bethlem. “And we have heard In light of the evidence we have heard, we consider that the prolonged restraint that result - about the brute force with which the police held Seni in a prolonged restraint, which they knew ed in Seni’s death was not and cannot be justified, and we now look to the Crown Prosecution to be dangerous: a restraint that was maintained until Seni was dead, for all intents and pur - Service to reconsider the case, so that the officers involved in the restraint may be brought to poses. In light of the evidence we have heard, we consider that the prolonged restraint that answer for their actions before a criminal court. This is necessary, not just in the interests of resulted in Seni’s death was not and cannot be justified, and we now look to the Crown justice for Seni, but also in the public interest, so that the police are seen to be accountable to Prosecution Service to reconsider the case, so that the officers involved in the restraint may be the rule of law. The officers involved in the restraint have not been able or willing to offer any brought to answer for their actions before a criminal court.” word of condolence or regret in their evidence, in the same way that none has been forth - Theresa May, while home secretary, took a personal interest in the case and met the Lewis coming from any of their managers or superiors in the Metropolitan Police over these years. family in January 2015. The first investigation into Lewis’s death by the Independent Police That lack of simple human decency is telling, and the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Complaints Commission cleared officers over his death, but pressure from the family meant the Cressida Dick, has an opportunity to put it right. We call on her to meet with us, so that we watchdog scrapped its conclusions and started a fresh inquiry. In a letter to them and another may help her to take responsibility for Seni’s death, to understand the lessons that need to be bereaved family, May wrote: “It is clearly unsatisfactory that families should have to go to court learnt, so that other families need not go through what we have had to endure. As a family, we to quash an IPCC report in order to secure a second investigation into the death of a loved one.” couldn’t have got through the last seven years without our Christian faith, the support of our In the Lewis case and that of musician Sean Rigg, who died after being restrained by police family, friends and legal team, and the unending strength we have gained from the team and in 2008, the IPCC claimed to have carried out thorough investigations that exonerated the other families at INQUEST and the United Families and Friends Campaign.” Raju Bhatt, the solicitor for Seni’s family, said: “Seni’s case has revealed a mental health overturn a conviction referred to it by the CCRC, based on proven serious misconduct by service and a legal system which appear unfit for purpose in the eyes of his family. They have certain police officers in other similar cases which were subsequently exposed as major mis - been failed repeatedly over the years since his death in 2010: first by those responsible for the carriages of justice (here). This has reinforced our concerns about how the CCRC will, or will hospital at which he was restrained to death; then by the officers involved in that prolonged not, react to suggestions we make in our submissions that relate to potential police malprac - restraint and their managers at the Metropolitan Police; then by those at the IPCC who seemed tice. In particular, the bar is undoubtedly set so high that any submission to the CCRC that incapable of fulfilling their responsibility to investigate the death; and, above all, by a process necessitates a full investigation into police activity probably has less chance of success than which allowed almost seven years to pass before this inquest could take place, the first occasion the proverbial cat in hell. It can be ‘the kiss of death’, our student Alex Thomas suggests. on which there has been any semblance of proper scrutiny in respect of the circumstances of So this article summarises how the CCRC dealt with our issues in this one particular case.
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